Iceland evacuates hundreds amid volcano fears

By The Associated Press
| 1:07 a.m.April 14, 2010

FILE -- In this Sunday March 21, 2010 file photo, molten lava vents from a rupture near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, as a volcano erupted. The Eyjafjallajokull volcano began erupting after 200 years of silence, threatening floods and earthquakes but drawing thousands of adventurous tourists - and their desperately needed cash - to the site where ash and red-hot lava spew from a crater between two glaciers.(AP Photo/Ragnar Axelsson )
— AP

FILE -- In this Sunday March 21, 2010 file photo, molten lava vents from a rupture near the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, as a volcano erupted. The Eyjafjallajokull volcano began erupting after 200 years of silence, threatening floods and earthquakes but drawing thousands of adventurous tourists - and their desperately needed cash - to the site where ash and red-hot lava spew from a crater between two glaciers.(AP Photo/Ragnar Axelsson )
/ AP

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Civil Protection Agency officials say hundreds of people in Iceland have been evacuated amid fears of second volcanic eruption.

Rognvaldur Olafsson, a chief inspector for the Icelandic agency, says some 800 people near the Eyjafjallajokull (AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) volcano were evacuated Wednesday morning after reports of seismic activity suggested it may have erupted for the second time. The volcano erupted March 20 month after almost 200 years of silence.

Olafsson says heavy cloud cover is preventing scientists from flying over the glacier to determine what precisely is happening and whether the volcano has actually erupted. But fears of flash floods from melting ice near the volcano prompted authorities to evacuate as a precaution.